With John Wick – the third instalment of which came out last month – Hollywood’s most enigmatic leading man once again established himself as a bona fide action star. But who is he, really? We sit down with the immortal Keanu Reeves in an attempt to separate the man from the myth.
Here, before you’re quite ready for him, is Keanu Reeves: At the top of the driveway of the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, smoking a cigarette on a low couch, like he’s on his front porch.
He’s been coming here since the early 1990s. The Chateau was rundown and empty then – a seedier, pre-André Balazs version of itself. The faucets didn’t always work. The carpets were dicey. “You didn’t want to take your shoes off,” Reeves says.
It felt like anything could happen. Usually, it did. “You could have a conversation,” Reeves says. “You could have a tryst. You could fucking do drugs. You could hang out. For me, there’s still that pulse here.”
He basically moved in for a while there. Could be found splashing in the pool with the likes of Sharon Stone or hiding in a corner “playing chess with his computer and smoking compulsively to fight stress”, depending which tabloid tall tale you bought.
Now he lives in a house, not far from here, up in the Hills. He’s owned it for about 12 years. Sometimes he sits up there and wonders if it’s the house he’s going to die in. It’s not a preoccupation – he’s just curious if this is going to be it, this place in the Hills. “I didn’t think about that,” he says, “when I was 40.”
Crossing the lobby, Reeves silently side-eyes a case of Gucci Chateau merch. A woman sees it’s Keanu Reeves crossing the lobby and gulps – like, audibly gulps.
He’s shown to a semi-private corner in the garden. Chairs around a mirrored coffee table. A wet Monday morning has given way to a cold Monday afternoon. It’s early February and the No 15 rap song in America is “Keanu Reeves”, by Logic, who was one year old when Point Break came out in 1991.
This story is from the June 2019 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2019 edition of GQ India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
How to Dress for a Concert in Your Thirties
GQ World Humour
MARNI'S FRANCESCO Risso WILL NEVER GROW UP
The eccentric Italian designer is proving that the very serious business of fashion doesn't have to be very serious at all.
WELCOME TO LAUREN HALSEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD
The red-hot 36-year-old artist has achieved global success with a very local approach: applying imaginative, laser-like focus to a few square blocks of her hometown. In doing so, she renders and reflects what it's actually like to live and work in-and never, ever leave-South Central Los Angeles.
MEET THE WILDEST CHARACTER IN THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSIC SCENE
Right now, to be the most important new voice in Afrobeats means you might just be the most important new voice in global music, period. That title currently belongs to Asake, a Nigerian singer with bonkers style and a penchant for making speaker-melting hits.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Goa's buzziest restaurants Praça Prazeres and Larder + Folk traverse the European continent for inspiration.
LEWIS HAMILTON IS CHANGING LANES
The seven-time F1 champ says he still has a world title in him-maybe this year, his final one at Mercedes; maybe next year when he joins Ferrari, a shocking move he tells us he manifested. But it's his passionate work outside of racing-in fashion, in film, in music-that's setting him up to keep making moves after the chequered flag drops on his racing career.
Summer of Sobhita
From Vizag to LA, Sobhita Dhulipala is having a golden run.
THE GQ35 MOST INFLUENTIAL YOUNG INDIANS
It's been 10 heady years since this list was first launched. And this year's edition celebrates India's youth power like never before. These individuals are leaders of powerful tribes, and personalities bearing influence over millions across the globe. They are pioneering business models, defining culture, and disrupting the status quo. They are driving innovation, pushing boundaries, and effecting change. Welcome to the future, today.
The Life-Changing Magic of Asking Kind Strangers to Rate Your Looks Online
On Reddit, a community dedicated to advice on one's appearance has given some men some unexpected confidence-and its moderators are trying to maintain one of the internet's few troll-free places.
Syncretic Jewels
An exhibition by Cartier at the Louvre, Abu Dhabi, highlighted the influence of Islamic art and Indian gems on the French maison's haute joaillerie over the years through more than 400 works from the museum's collection as well as those of partner museums, the Cartier archives, and private collectors.